It's official, Amazon's Echo speakers hit Australia in Feb

This packaged expansion seems to be their theme in 2018, as the company stated both would be coming to Australia and New Zealand early in the new year.

From today, the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus are available for preorder on the Amazonwebsite. "Voice technology opens the door to many new opportunities for hipages and we are excited to be one of the first transactional skill-based services to integrate with Amazon Alexa in Australia".

New subscribers to Amazon Unlimited will get a free 90-day trial.

Users can also receive the latest jobs by email, giving them more detail of the role they heard on Alexa.

New California Movement Aims to Split the State
Texas could also divide itself into multiple states , and it often sees proposals to do so, but they have always failed. A group of activists have declared independence from California in hopes of creating a 51st state, according to KRON .

Westpac said that the "Westpac Banking Skill" will let customers check their account balance, recent spending history, and reward points status using Alexa.

The cloud-powered Alexa service can perform a range of tasks in response to spoken queries, such as answer questions, read news headlines, play music, make calls and control Wi-Fi and Zigbee connected smart home devices. In addition to being sold via Amazon.com.au, they are available from Myer, JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks and Telstra. After that, a monthly subscription will be required to continue to use the service. The version of Alexa launched will also be catered specifically for Australia and New Zealand, where it will come loaded with knowledge about the local areas, as well as skills created by local developers.

Back at CES in 2017, Amazon was declared as the victor of the show by commentators - despite the Seattle firm not being officially present at the event - because of the amount of speakers and other devices on display that were compatible with Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant.

Joshua calls fake news about his 'glass chin'
Parker has been on good terms with Fury since defeating his cousin, Hughie, in a defence of the WBO heavyweight title past year . He added: 'So my challenge to my fighter Joseph Parker is I need this to be his greatest performance.

Dave Matthews Band coming to Va. Beach
The Dave Matthews Band typically plays the Gorge every summer, but previous year took some time off. It was a busy Tuesday morning for concert announcements throughout Northern California.

Cuomo seeks NY tax revisions to thwart federal changes
That includes two of New York's neighboring states: MA , whose voters approved legalized pot in 2016, and Vermont, where. NY lawmakers want to know if a new state initiative aimed at reducing property taxes is working as intended.

Angry gymnastics coach tells perv doctor to 'go to hell'
However, he is actually accused of using his position of authority to molest over 120 gymnasts over the last few decades. Stephens looked directly at Nassar as she concluded on a powerful note: "Little girls don't stay little forever".

Dolores O'Riordan, Lead Singer of the Cranberries, Dead at 46
Other artists to pay tribute to O'Riordan include Dave Davies of the Kinks, Irish musician Hozier, Duran Duran and Kodaline. He figures they worked together on roughly 80 songs since first teaming up on her first solo album, " Are You Listening? ".

Bannon subpoenaed to appear before grand jury
But Mr Trump accused Mr Bannon of having "lost his mind" when news of his comments to Michael Wolff surfaced earlier this month . More recently, Bannon has said he was not referring to Trump Jr . but rather to Manafort.

Arsenal 'agree personal terms' with Aubameyang
In fact, there's so much gubbins in today's papers that we've taken the liberty of compiling it all in this 'ere Update Megamix™. Previously at Dortmund, he played a vital role in bringing the striker to the club, ironically beating Arsenal to his signature.

Kosovo Serb Politician Oliver Ivanovic Assassinated
Police said they found a burnt-out Opel vehicle in the town after the shooting and suspected it was linked to the attack. The doctors said Ivanovic had received at least five gunshot wounds to his upper torso.